1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to water safety gear including life vests and integrated rescue products, adapted for use by scuba divers, and more particularly to a system having sequential deployment of a tank mounted counterweight, a forward buoyant chamber, and/or a partial ballast release combined with multiple visual and audible alerting devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Non-releasable tank mounted ballast as disclosed in issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,516,233 and 5,855,454 ("the '233 and '454 patents"), the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, is significantly advanced by the disclosure herein of a neutral airway protective device. Patents cited in the '233 and '454 patents illustrate: tank mounted ballast, issued BC with horse collar and with hybrid personal floatation device "PFD" (neoprene+inflatable component), and soft pouch.
Two of the primary complaints that have obstructed the fixed counterweight/ballast's airway protection from being embraced by all divers are (1) unacceptable deterioration in underwater diving comfort, and (2) loss or reduction of releasable ballast. During the first half of the dive, the non-releasable tank mounted counterweight, shown in the '233 and '454 patents, is affixed to the rear of the tank, and thus, continually attempts to roll the diver over underwater, either left or right.
Numerous scuba diving fatalities occur in training or during the first year of diver experience. For these divers, their gear must be setup BEFORE they start a dive with a fixed counterweight which provide 100% reliable airway protection from the beginning to the end of their dive, independent of any action on their part. By analogy the beginning sky diver is protected from fainting or panics, by being attached to the plane and thus their gear will protect them if they fail to operate the rip cord for any reason. By sharp contrast, the advanced sky diver, only after the acquisition of experience, is allowed to assume full responsibility for opening their parachute. If the advanced sky diver faints or panics and consequently fail to pull their rip cord, death is nearly inevitable with the exception of in air rescues or acts of God. The free sky diver accepts the consequences of configuring their gear such that it transfers to them 100% responsibility for pulling their rip cord. Similarly, the advanced scuba diver for comfort and performance reasons may insist on diving a face down dive jacket i.e. a dive jacket that stabilizes the diver in an airway submerging surface position 90% of the time. In fact many advanced scuba divers absolutely refuse to dive with an attached fixed counterweight because its deterioration of comfort and performance exceed their desire for airway protection.
After unacceptable deterioration in dive comfort, the second most common reason divers refuse routine use of airway protective counterweighting is the loss or marked reduction of releasable ballast. This rejection of reliable airway protection is most often heard from warm water divers who do not require buoyant thermal protection and therefore they maybe diving with very little ballast on their weight belts. The addition of a counterweight as required to provide reliable surface airway protection can equal or exceed the amount of ballast currently worn by some divers as a function of tank buoyancy, diver body types, and selected gear. Even if the counterweight does not exceed the diver's total weight, there is often concern regarding the counterweight's conversion of any releasable weight belt ballast into non-releasable tank mounted ballast. Their position fears the loss of the diver's ability to rapidly gain positive buoyancy as occurs when the weight belt is dropped. Some instructors teach that the value of releasable ballast in accident prevention exceeds the value gained from improved airway protection.
Deployment of a diver's Personal Flotation Device ("PFD") results in rapid and nearly irreversible shift towards excessive buoyancy. Only if the diver is in sufficient control to disconnect the quick release inflation hose or to detach and release the PFD itself at depth, can the diver reverse the impact of the PFD's deployment on their ascent rate. The PFD's deployment at depth will add enough net buoyancy to expose the diver to an increased risk of accelerated ascent rates, rates where even with the diver's glottis open, certain areas of the lungs may not able to safely depressurize. Since alveolar wall rupture occurs with pressure differential as low as 3.5 fsw, this relatively small differential can build up due to inconsistencies in pulmonary parenchyma in which collapse of small airways obstructs down stream alveoli, which then rapidly over inflate and rupture.
Alveolar rupture, introduces gas emboli into the arterial blood supply creating Arterial Gas Emboli ("AGE"). These gas bubbles proceed to all organs but the tissues most sensitive to even transient hypoxemia are the coronary and central nervous system. Coronary and Cerebral Arterial Gas Emboli ("CCAGE") obstructs end organ blood flow, infarcting down stream tissue. The primary presentation of Cerebral AGE is Loss Of Consciousness ("LOC") which renders the diver unable to participate in protecting his or her airway, making the distressed diver total dependent upon their dive gear. Cerebral AGE with its ability to infarct the brainstem which drives respiration and other vital physiology, is clearly associated with repeated, unpredictable, and untreatable fatalities that occur during buoyant ascent. The U.S. Navy, even under ideal conditions such as in buoyant ascent training in water filled tubes with on-line decompression chambers for the immediate treatment of CCAGE, suffered so many fatalities that non-war time ascent training was terminated because of it's untenably lethality. Director of National Underwater Accident Data Center estimates that 50% of diver fatalities begin as CCAGE, but the secondary filling of the lungs with water, inadvertently leads to the identified cause of death by the coroner as drowning. Thus, the numerous efforts disclose, the requirement to safely separate the high lift surface buoyancy needs of the PFD chamber from the low lift buoyancy needs of the underwater buoyancy compensation chamber.
In view of the above, it is therefore to the effective resolution of the aforementioned problems and shortcomings that the present invention is directed.